


raise the bar

by bogfenwetland



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora Mentioned, F/F, catradora mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24203764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bogfenwetland/pseuds/bogfenwetland
Summary: catra and glimmer talk on prime's ship
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 178





	raise the bar

**Author's Note:**

> if you'll observe, most everything i have ever written for any fandom can be boiled down to 'women talking to each other in less than 3000 words.' anyway, i wanted the conversation they had between the cell wall to go just a little deeper.
> 
> (im on tumblr @jennifersbody2)

Running through the cavernous, empty halls of Horde Prime’s ship, Catra had to admit to herself something that she had never thought before. She missed the Fright Zone. She missed the cramped corridors, the random piles of junk everywhere, the hot tar smell that sank over the whole base. But especially, in this moment, she missed her absolute free rein over the territory in the height of her favor with Hordak. Because here, in the cold reaches of outer space, things were very, very different.

“Glory be to Lord Prime, Little Sister!”

“Glory be to _this_ , freak!” Catra’s words echoed through the chamber, quickly drowned out by the sound of her claws scraping into the metal walls. The clone chasing her rounded the corner, whipping his head around wildly when he couldn’t spot Catra. From above, clinging to the ceiling by rapidly deteriorating claw puncture wounds, Catra suppressed a laugh. The clone sighed and set his jaw, briskly continuing his run down the hall. Just in time, as the holes Catra had dug into the metal had widened to a point of being unusable, and she hit the ground with a heavy thud and a muffled yelp. Luckily, those clones seemed pretty incompetent. 

Catra grumbled to herself as she stalked down the corridor. How was she supposed to know there were clone only bathrooms? It’s a ship full of just clones, why would they need to specify something like that? And, regardless, who in their right mind would chase a woman around for fifteen minutes over a non-issue like that? Yeah, maybe it had more to do with how she called Prime an ugly dog with terrible taste in food. And how she dumped the mop bucket on the clone that pursued her. Now that she thought of it, did he actually say anything about clone-only bathrooms? Did she just make that up? No matter. There was a more pressing issue at hand. Like how totally lost she was. 

Seriously, this ship must’ve been built to be entirely unnavigable by the average person. Or maybe if she had been paying attention instead of hurling insults at her attacker Catra would know her way around. As it stood, she had no bearing at all on where she was. Everything looked the same, those ugly sterile walls. After another five minutes more of aimless wandering, Catra began to consider drastic measures. Maybe she could try to… apologize to the clone from earlier? She shuddered to even think of the idea. Crossing into a new hallway, she continued brainstorming. Perhaps if she…

“Do you always talk to yourself like that?”

Catra jumped, quickly trying to smooth out the puffy fur of her tail. She regained her composure, baring her teeth in a vicious smile when she realized who was speaking to her.

“Oh, you again, Sparkles. Tell me, how goes life behind bars? You feel like a hardened criminal yet?” 

“I don’t know, Catra. You tell me. You seem to have about as much liberty as I do, just under the guise of being free,” Glimmer shot back. Catra always hated when this girl would act tough. 

“Listen here, princess. I am--”

“It’s queen, actually.”

Catra growled loudly before turning on her heel to get away from this whole situation. She barely made it two steps until she was interrupted again. 

“That’s the way to the laundry room,” Glimmer started. “Did Prime really put you on wash duty?” she asked with a scornful laugh. Catra spun back on her heel again, almost losing her balance from the quick turnaround. Without sparing a glance towards the princ-- _queen_ , she started walking in the other direction past the cell. 

“Catra, wait!” Glimmer called out. Catra ignored her, continuing on her way. “Please, Catra. Come back.” Catra snarled and spun back around. She was starting to get dizzy. 

“What?” she barked, hands balled into fists at her side. Glimmer stared at her from where she stood inside her cell, and for the first time Catra noticed how vulnerable she looked. Sickening. 

“I just, I don’t know. I just want someone to talk to, I guess,” Glimmer explained, barely making eye contact. Catra sighed, about to become a full-fledged ballerina with one more spin. But something stopped her in her tracks. She had had something of a breakthrough the other day. While she was definitely not in jail. She did want to try to be… kinder. In case she ever got out of here. Catra knew she had really bunked things up back on Eternia. She supposed that talking to a lonely girl on an evil spaceship might be a good place to start with in her efforts to learn compassion. And, honestly, she felt lonely herself, too. So she wasn’t going totally soft. Catra lowered herself onto the floor outside of the cell, crossing her legs and resting her chin in her hands.

“Hit me, then, Sparkles. What’s up?” 

“Oh, wow, I didn’t think you would actually… okay, uh, how are you finding it here?” Glimmer asked, seeming very surprised.

“Here, on this ship full of malicious clones? Oh, it’s just lovely. Very accomodating. Is this all you got?” Catra demanded, feeling her temper rise. Patience was a virtue, just not one of hers. 

“Hey, come on! I didn’t think you would agree to this! Every time we talk you act like it didn’t happen the next time you stumble your way to this part of the ship? And is that really what you do all day, just walk around and get lost?” 

“I don’t know, maybe if we actually managed to do something memorable like construct some sort of escape plan instead of just moping around reminiscing about our _friends_ or whatever I would care more to engage in conversation with you! And it’s none of your business what I do!” 

“What kind of plan can I come up with? I know nothing about this place! You’re the one who claims to have total freedom here, why don’t you try to do some recon?”

“I’m not your spybot, princess! Who said I want to get out of here, anyway?”

“You did, Catra! Five seconds ago, when you brought up escape plans!”

Catra shook her head, moving to push herself up from the ground. 

“Wait,” Glimmer started, “why don’t you like talking about yourself?”

“God, what is this, psychoanalyze random passersby day? Leave me alone!” Catra was standing fully now.

“I just thought that you would like to talk about Adora, at least. But you even seemed a little uncomfortable when we did that in the past.” Catra begrudgingly sat again at the mention of Adora.

“You already know everything there is to know about me. Evil Horde, death portal, betrayal, blah blah blah. That’s pretty much all there is,” Catra explained. Her voice sounded tight, like she was trying and somewhat failing to hide emotion. 

“I mean, that _can’t_ be it. For some reason, Adora still cares about you. Where does that come from?” 

“What do you mean, she cares about me? No she doesn’t. Newsflash, princess, in case the story was described differently to you. Adora left me behind. She never cared about me,” Catra spat angrily. 

“Catra, you know that’s not true,” Glimmer stated simply, shaking her head. Catra just stared at her, eyes narrowed with fury. “Well! For one thing, she’s talked about how close you two were when you were young. Obviously she at least cared about you then.”

“Hahaha, yeah right. The more I think about it the more I realize our ‘friendship’ as kids was just out of convenience for her. Someone else to take the blame, someone else to do the dirty work,” Catra sighed. 

“That’s… I’m sorry, but that’s crazy,” Glimmer said. Someone was feeling brave. Catra dug her claws into the floor. 

“What!? Who are you to say if my--”

“No, seriously! Listen to yourself! You think that everybody always has some ulterior motive, some sort of angle they're trying to use to take advantage of you. Did you ever think that she might just like your company? That you make her happy as a friend?

“Oh, so now it’s my responsibility to make her happy, right.”

“What is _wrong_ with you, Catra! What do you think friends are?” Glimmer exclaimed, her frustration evident. Catra gripped the floor harder. But, slowly, her anger began to seep out of her. She looked Glimmer in the eye, her brows furrowed. She scratched at the top of her head. 

“Friends? That’s obvious, right? They’re… people. That you know. People that you know.” 

“ _That’s_ what you think a friend is? Just any old person that you know? You know me. Do you think we’re friends?” Glimmer asked incredulously.

“No!” Catra exclaimed, her voice high pitched. “No, we’re enemies.”

“What are enemies?”

“Other people that you know! What do I look like, some sort of dictionary?” Catra punched the ground, wincing at the pain of the hard steel. She stood from the floor and began pacing the length of the cell wall. “Friends are people that you know and like, and enemies are people that you know and don’t like. In our case, a person that I know and currently _despise_ because you’re giving me a vocabulary quiz.”

“Okay, and what about people that you don’t particularly like and don’t particularly hate?” Glimmer questioned. Catra’s mind flashed to Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio. 

“Well, they can be friends, too. I guess. Who cares about this stuff Twinkle! All I’m saying is that I’ve always known Adora didn’t want me. She didn’t care enough about me to take my side,” Catra explained, her voice resigned.

“Your side is evil, Catra!”

“And so what if it is?”

“How can you honestly expect someone to--” Glimmer started to yell, but quickly found her calm. She took a labored deep breath. “Okay, okay, picture this. If you and a friend are at a playground--”

“A what?” 

“Are you kidding me? The Horde doesn’t have playgrounds?” 

“I can infer from the name that they’re supposed to be some kind of fun? Do you think that we had that, really?”

“Like, slides? Swings? Jungle gyms?” Glimmer asked. Her voice was imploring, like she was begging Catra to find something redeeming about the Horde in their children’s entertainment. As if.

“Oh! A jungle gym! We have one of those!” Catra shouted out, exaggerating her excitement. “Yeah, it’s called Beast Island, and it’s where they send traitors to die. The whole place is covered in a jungle of ancient technology and, if we can base judgements off your dad, you get pretty ripped if you survive there.” 

“Keep my dad’s name out of your mouth!” 

“I didn’t say his _name_. It’s Micah, though, isn’t it?” Catra asked, playing innocent. Glimmer slammed her fist into the cell wall, recoiling at the sound it made. 

“Shut up! God, I see why Adora wouldn’t want to keep hanging around with you. You’re just so negative!” Glimmer exclaimed. Her remorse was apparent immediately, magnified by the horror on her face when Catra released a wrathful scream.

“I don’t get you at all! What do you want from me? To torture me? To remind me of the things I already know and hate about myself? Come on, Glimmer! Give me a break!” Catra shouted out, eyes blazing with rage. Glimmer’s eyes widened.

“You used my name?” she asked in a whisper.

“Who cares! Glimmer, Glimmer, Glimmer! It doesn’t matter! Do you want to be friends? Well, look at that I’ve decided we’re friends now! Just, the very best of friends. Now you can go ahead and keep hurting me, just like all my other friends have done…” Catra started furiously, but her energy quickly petered out. By the end, she was slouched on her knees, head in her hands and tears flowing down her face.

“Catra…” Glimmer mumbled, looking down at the floor. “Catra, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have said that thing about Adora leaving you. I know from her that that isn’t what she wanted. I just… got upset. And I wanted to get under your skin. I’m sorry.”

“Well, you succeeded. Thanks, pal.” 

Silence fell over them hard, the weight of it crushing. Catra slumped further down, Glimmer kept her eyes averted. In an instant, Catra was right up against the cell wall. 

“Wait,” she said through her tears. “You said that Adora told you this isn’t what she wanted?” 

“Of course not, why would she want this?”

“Why wouldn’t she!?” Catra yelled, anger creeping back. 

“Oh, Catra… you have no idea how she feels about you,” Glimmer spoke quietly, a small smile pulling at her lips. Catra just surged forward, her open palms pressed against the wall. 

“She talks about you all the time. All the time. It’s honestly kind of annoying. Catra this, Catra that. Anytime we try to make a plan, she has to barge in all ‘well I’m the one who knows Catra the best and I can handle her in any scenario,’ I swear it’s like she just wants to keep you all to yourself. Think about it, Catra, every time there’s a fight, who gets you? Adora. She takes any excuse to see you, even if you two are going to spend the whole time beating each other into the ground. She cares about you so much, Catra,” Glimmer urged. Catra sniffled, ugly and loud. 

“No, no, if she cared, then why would she _leave_ me?” Catra questioned, angry and sad all at once. 

“She wanted you on her side, Catra. Remember? She tried to win you over. Forgive me, but you were too stubborn to accept her invitation. But she had to _leave_. Surely, you must be beginning to understand that now. From the start, She-Ra was out of her control. A destiny beyond her. Even though she’s been able to overcome that, it was initially unstoppable. If you suddenly had some cosmic fate thrust upon you, would you ignore it for Adora?”

“Yes.”

“Would you really?”

“Yes! Yes, I _need_ her, I would never just up and leave her!” Catra gasped as she realized what she said.

“You really care about her, huh? I think I understand,” Glimmer said, a smirk on her face.

“No you don’t!”

“Listen. If you love her as much as you say you--”

“I didn’t say I love her!”

“ _If you love her as much as you say you do_ , you will be able to understand this. Reverse the roles. Really take this seriously. If you think you would ignore a magical destiny, think about how that would affect her. The universe is at stake right now. If you don’t save the universe, you don’t save her.”

“That’s not how she thinks of it. She would save the universe regardless of if I was in it or not.”

“Of course she would, but don’t you think just a part of it could be for you? You have to see by now that she cares for you. I mean, in the simplest of terms, how many times could she have killed you and she’s let you go instead? Or just slapped you with the broadside of her sword instead of using it for what it was made for? She lets you live because she loves you, as you love her. Things just got complicated somewhere along the line.”

Catra shook her head rapidly, as if unwilling to accept this information. But, under Glimmer’s forceful stare, it was no use. Catra had known this, somewhere, all along. Glimmer was right. Shadow Weaver, Hordak, they had messed with her mind and her perception so much that she forgot how to recognize love when it was staring her in the face. Compassion had been lost on her for so long that she had no idea what it looked like. These things she told herself, about Adora leaving her and about how worthless she was, she said them to protect herself. If you set the bar for other people -- for yourself -- incredibly low, you won’t ever be disappointed. It was time to raise the bar. Catra looked up, meeting Glimmer’s eyes.

“Glimmer?”

“Yeah?”

“We have to get you out of here.” 


End file.
